WaterAid is an international development agency and charity. WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. Safe water and sanitation are fundamental to life and everyone has a right to these basic services. However, one in eight people do not have access to safe drinking water and two in five people do not have adequate sanitation. Compounded by a lack of good hygiene practices, the result is extreme poverty and ill health among millions of people. Globally 884 million people (one in eight) live without safe drinking water and 2.5 billion (two in five) do not have adequate sanitation.
The lack of these basic services adversely affects people’s health, education, dignity and livelihoods. Every day 4,000 children die needlessly from diarrhoea, and countless others are too sick to go to school. Millions of hours are wasted as women and children walk each day to collect filthy water. With nowhere safe and clean to go to the toilet people 
are exposed to disease, lack of privacy and indignity; problems which are particularly acute in overcrowded urban settlements. WaterAid’s mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. We work with partners and influence decision-makers to maximise our impact. For more information on WaterAid in Australia please visit www.wateraid.org/australia.